Abstract: A video e-mail system eliminates the distribution of a video file to each recipient of a video e-mail by receiving a video e-mail designated for multiple recipients, storing the corresponding video file, creating a link to the corresponding video file in the e-mail, and sending the e-mail that includes the link to each of the designated recipients. The video e-mail system also includes a text prompter that displays the contents of a text file as a script for a user to read when recording a video message. The text file may be used to generate a text subtitle file that is stored with the corresponding video file. When the user clicks on the link in the e-mail corresponding to the video file, the video file is played with the subtitle text that was generated from the text prompt file.